Browsing by Author "Kececi, SD"

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    Cancer Stem Cell and Embryonic Development-Associated Molecules Contribute to Prognostic Significance in Ovarian Cancer
    Oktem, G; Sanci, M; Bilir, A; Yildirim, Y; Kececi, SD; Ayla, S; Inan, S
    Objectives: Embryonic molecules and cancer stem cell signaling resemble each other, and they organize cancer modality. We hypothesized that similar immunohistochemical expressions between tumor spheroids and patients' samples compared with clinical relevance would give an important clue in patients' prognosis. Methods: Immunohistochemical expression of c-kit, Notch1, Jagged1, and Delta1 in 50 cases of primary ovarian tumors (10 endometrioid, 10 serous, 10 mucinous adenocarcinoma, 10 borderline serous, and 10 borderline mucinous tumors) and MDAH-2774 spheroids were investigated. Results were compared in both spheroids and tumor samples with morphologic parameters (histological grade) and clinical data (age, stage, tumor size, and metastasis). Results: High c-kit and Notch1 immunoreactivity was shown in spheroids, but interestingly immunoreactivity of these molecules in tumor samples was different from patients' clinicopathological characteristics. In serous carcinoma, metastasis correlated with Notch1 immunoexpression; in mucinous carcinoma, Jagged1 immunohistochemistry correlated with grade, stage, and metastasis of tumor; in borderline serous and mucinous tumors, Jagged1 correlated with high grade. Moreover, Jagged1 correlated with stage and Notch1 with size in borderline mucinous tumor. Endometrioid carcinoma statistics showed that there was a correlation between age and Notch1 expression. Conclusion: Notch1, Jagged1, and Delta1 expressions might be useful markers for clinical prognosis of ovarian carcinomas; and Notch pathway, one of the most intensively studied putative therapeutic targets, may be a useful marker for cancer. Consequently, Jagged1 could be a marker for tumor grades and Notch1 as a marker for metastases.
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    Agnostic Biomarkers in Molecular Pathology
    Yilmaz, ZS; Cakir, Y; Kececi, SD; Bozkurt, KK; Ertunc, O; Ozturk, RG; Tan, A
    Advances in molecular techniques have revealed that different molecular mechanisms are responsible for the behavior of cancer cells. Molecular alterations play a critical role in both the differential diagnosis of cancer and in the development of targeted therapies. Studies have identified the same potentially targetable mutations across various tumor types, supporting the emergence of tumor-agnostic therapies. To date, five biomarkers have been approved for tumor-agnostic therapy: microsatellite instability (MSI), neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) fusion, tumor mutation burden (TMB), BRAFV600E mutation, and rearranged during transfection (RET) fusions. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved pembrolizumab for MSI-high tumors or tumors with a high TMB. Larotrectinib and entrectinib have been approved for the treatment of NTRK gene fusion-positive tumors. Additionally, the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib has been approved for BRAFV600E mutations, and selpercatinib has been approved for RET fusion-positive cancers as of 2022. Positive responses to agnostic therapy, a significant milestone in cancer treatment, depend on the identification of new agnostic biomarkers. Ongoing research is focused on defining additional molecular changes, such as programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), Kirsten rat sarcoma virus (KRAS), neuregulin 1 (NRG1), fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR), anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), AKT serine/threonine kinase (AKT), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha (PIK3CA), and breast cancer gene (BRCA), as potential agnostic biomarkers in various cancer types.